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Fri, 27 Feb 2026

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 Anthropic boss rejects Pentagon demand to drop AI safeguards

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth previously threatened to remove the firm from the department's supply chain.
Anthropic, an AI technology company, has refused to back down in its dispute with the US Department of Defense (DoD) over how its artificial intelligence tools are used. The company's CEO, Dario Amodei, stated that Anthropic would rather not work with the Pentagon than agree to uses of its tech that could "undermine democratic values." The issue at hand is the potential use of Anthropic's AI tools for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. Amodei expressed concerns about the company's contracts with the DoD, stating that such use cases have never been included in their agreements. He also mentioned that the new contract language provided by the DoD did not address the concerns about preventing mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. The US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, had threatened to remove Anthropic from the DoD's supply chain if they did not comply with his demands. However, Amodei stated that this would not change their position and that they would work on transitioning to another provider if necessary. A representative of Anthropic added that while the new contract language was framed as a compromise, it still allowed for the disregard of safeguards against mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons at will. They emphasized that these concerns have been the crux of their negotiations with the DoD for months. Meanwhile, a Pentagon official had previously stated that if Anthropic did not comply, Hegseth would invoke the Defense Production Act to deem the company essential to defense needs. However, a former DoD official described Hegseth's grounds for this measure as "extremely flimsy."